Transferred from Utah to Minnesota after nine years at Jazz, Rudy Gobert, who had known only one team since his arrival in the NBA, evokes for the first time this Monday this departure for Wolves, where the French pivot will evolve in particular alongside Karl-Anthony Towns.
“A lot is happening, even today. This is the first time I’ve been traded. » Transferred last Friday from Utah to Minnesota, Rudy Gobert (26 years old, 2.11m) has not yet fallen from the excitement caused by this departure for the Wolves after nine years at Jazz and when he had not only known one team since joining the NBA. In The Team this Monday, the Guadeloupean nevertheless admits that he had “prepared for this scenario”especially after his agent (Bouna N’Diaye) asked him “if a team like Minnesota could (the) interest”. The French pivot answered in the affirmative, seduced by the prospect of joining a franchise “who can win the title”, according to him, and “has what it takes to play at a very high level”.
“Minnesota’s offer was very hard to refuse,” recognizes Gobert, who is already having fun at the idea of playing alongside Karl-Anthony Towns, whose phone number he has already obtained, like all his other future teammates in Minnesota. “We haven’t yet exchanged with Karl-Anthony Towns but it will be soon. It’s very funny: he and I have always been opposed during our career, compared. I never imagined that we would play next to each other. It can give something incredible (…) KAT still has room for improvement, it will gain in maturity. »
Gobert dreams of the title
No offense to those who think a team can’t shine with two insides in the major five. The three-time best defender in the NBA is convinced otherwise: “The world already knows that the ‘big men’ can dominate, we have seen it in recent years even if the Warriors are champions. But when you see the Jokic, the Embiid, me, Towns… We are greats and major pieces. Now there are two on the same team. » Enough to make the French international, very ambitious at the dawn of this new challenge, want to find out as soon as possible what awaits him at Wolves: “I can’t wait to start with Minnesota (…) I’m going to come in and do everything to help this franchise go where it wants. Especially since personally, I never went further than the second round. I want to take this team to the top. »
Because “Gobzilla does not hide it: he dreams of a title. “That’s the goal and that’s what this exchange suggests (…) The goal is not just to play the play-offs. I’m not going there to take the temperature. » The message is clear. And that the supporters of the Blues are reassured: it is not because Gobert is about to experience very turbulent weeks that he will not be at the Euro with the France team. “I am committed, I am preparing for this deadline, and we will go to the Euro to obtain a title of European champion”, promises the new Wolves player.
